Federal agents apprehend Milwaukee judge on obstruction charges
Federal authorities detained Judge Hannah Dugan of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court on Friday, citing obstruction related to her alleged interference in an immigration arrest. The judge was taken into custody at the county courthouse and is currently under federal supervision, according to reports from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Following the incident, Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), briefly posted about the arrest on X before removing the message.
Judge Dugan’s arrest occurred just one day after federal agents arrested former New Mexico county judge Joel Cano and his wife at their residence. The couple faces charges for evidence tampering and for allegedly harboring a member of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. The administration has previously leveraged dubious evidence, including benign tattoos, to accuse Venezuelan migrants of gang affiliations as a justification for deportation to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Although details surrounding the arrests remain limited, they indicate a potential intensification of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, with increasing scrutiny on individuals who assist undocumented immigrants. Additionally, the Department of Justice under Trump’s administration appears to be employing legal actions as tools to target critics and reward allies, as demonstrated by the contentious decision to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the recent directive for Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the Democratic donation platform ActBlue.
The administration has also gone after religious groups such as Catholic Charities and Global Refuge, which support immigrant and refugee communities. Elon Musk, without evidence, accused Global Refuge—previously known as Lutheran Immigration and Refuge Service Inc.—of money laundering and stated that his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would terminate all "illegal payments" to the organization.
According to the Journal Sentinel, federal officials have not yet named the individual Dugan is accused of assisting in evading immigration enforcement, but indications suggest it may be Eduardo Flores Ruiz, a Mexican immigrant who appeared in her courtroom on April 18th. Reports indicate that when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrived at the courthouse, Dugan allegedly instructed Flores Ruiz—who was facing three misdemeanor battery charges—and his attorney to exit through a side door, guiding them down a private hallway to avoid ICE.
"Just NOW, the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction—after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week," Patel stated in his now-deleted X post. "We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject—an illegal alien—to evade arrest."
Under previous administrations, ICE agents typically refrained from conducting arrests in courthouses and other “sensitive locations” such as hospitals, schools, and churches. However, Trump revoked the guidance barring courthouse arrests during his first term, a policy later reinstated by President Biden. Upon resuming office in 2025, Trump eliminated ICE’s sensitive locations policy entirely.
During Trump’s initial term, federal prosecutors charged another sitting judge with obstruction of justice for allegedly aiding an immigrant in avoiding immigration authorities. According to the Journal Sentinel, Massachusetts Judge Shelley Joseph faced obstruction charges in 2019 for reportedly allowing an immigrant to exit her courtroom via a side door to evade ICE agents. Although she faced a possible 25-year prison sentence, the charges against her were dismissed in 2022.
